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Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, An Important Milestone for Women

Button of Nancy Pelosi as Rosie the Riveter (used with permission).

Elated, awed, in tears of joy. These words pretty much describe how I have felt these past few days as I’ve been privileged to be able to attend several of the events organized to celebrate the election of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. And while everyone I’ve discussed these events with has been similarly thrilled, I also note the criticism that has come that Speaker Pelosi is making too big a deal–huh?
First woman speaker of the house ever, second in line to the Presidency (after Vice President Cheney) and we are all making too big a deal? This is just the first wave of the many critiques she will receive, all of which will be conditioned by her gender. Women leaders and all feminists have a role to play in speaking out in support of Pelosi and other women members of Congress when they are attacked for being where some think they don’t belong–in the halls of power!
Please join me in a New Year’s Resolution to support our women members of Congress with our voices and actions in 2007. At only 16 percent in both the House and the Senate, women have still not achieved a 20 percent share, a proportion that many observers think would indicate that women have advanced beyond the token stage in which they can be relatively easily marginalized (see the CAWP site at Rutgers University for more data on women’s office holding).
– Heidi Hartmann

4 thoughts on “Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, An Important Milestone for Women”

Thanks, Heidi, for your description of the wonderful tea. It is terrific that we finally have something to celebrate after so very very long in the wilderness. I’m pleased to see that Speaker Pelosi is directing a light to the children but I do wish someone would mention the selfless women who are foregoing producing a child because many they can see that there is not enough clean air and drinkable water for the children who are already here. And more humans mean more habitat destruction for the four footed creatures who share this planet with us.
That said, I did want to mention that the UN Commission on the Status of Women has a priority theme this year of Eliminating all Forms of Discrimination and Violence Against the Girl Child. They will be meeting in NY at the UN Building on Feb 26-March 9, 2007. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/51sess.htm
Perhaps Speaker Pelosi intends to use the power this assembly has to apply even more attention to the condition of the girl child. We can’t get too much. When today’s children reach adulthood, they will already be empowered women, we can hope.
Thanks for all the wonderful work the Institute for Women’s Policy Research does to move women forward. And congratulations on your new blog!
Jean Richards

crashmattb / Spot on with your thoughts, Robert. It’s cool to hear it from your pepierctsve, especially since I’m one of those designers you found via Coroflot. Thankfully I have do have a job, but with my office continuing to downsize I’ve spent most of the summer still applying for a few jobs. No doubt the current system is broken, but it’s almost impossible to overcome right now. After basically getting into an argument yesterday afternoon with a recruiter about my chaotic job history (who had already seen my resume and contacted me), I’m almost completely done working with recruiters. They use and abuse you for their benefit. But are they worse than using Monster or other job sites? Heck, even companies are screwed up. I’ve interviewed with two companies that did actually find me via Coroflot, but gave me little information on the open positions or companies, and then booked me in back-to-back time slots with 10-15 other people they were also interviewing over an afternoon. What companies are capable of hiring are having a hard time sorting through the growing talent pool. I’m sure that’s a challenge, but they are making it seem more and more like a privilege to even apply with them. Now they also want you to enter in all your resume information into their online database no matter if they found you or a recruiter connected you. (Where do I upload my cover letter???) Why can’t their just be a central database as you mentioned? After landing my last two jobs by being contacted directly, there is no doubt in mind that networking and having databases like LinkedIn/Coroflot is the best way to be contacted and land a job. Just doesn’t seem like knowing anyone these days is helping out. Of course, knowing that a hugely qualified designer/manager extraordinaire such as yourself is having a hard time is just another sign of how broken this whole system truly is. You would run circles around so many, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Best of luck, dude.